1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a tank holding mechanism that holds a gas tank, and a vehicle in which a gas tank is mounted using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, mounting a high-pressure gas tank (hereinafter, referred to as “HP gas tank”) in a vehicle has become increasingly common. For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2003-291666 (JP-A-2003-291666) describes a fuel-cell vehicle provided with a HP gas tank that stores hydrogen gas used as fuel gas for a fuel cell. The HP gas tank is transversely mounted in the vehicle.
According to JP-A-2003-291666, multiple bands are wound around a cylindrical portion of the HP gas tank to hold the HP gas tank. Therefore, even if a force is applied to an outer face of the cylindrical portion of the HP gas tank, the bands keep holding the HP gas tank in an appropriate position against the force. The bands are wound around the outer face of the cylindrical portion. In this arrangement, the holding force of these bands needs to be sufficient to keep holding the HP gas tank in an appropriate position even if an axial force is applied to the HP gas tank. Meanwhile, reduction in the wall thickness of a HP gas tank is now in increasing demand to achieve weight reduction of the HP gas tank. As the wall thickness is reduced, however, it is not possible to further increase the holding force of the bands.